Slice of Life: Celebration! 3/31

I am participating again this year in the Slice of Life challenge in which we write a slice every day in March. If you are interested in joining in, visit the Two Writing Teachers blog for more information.

I am so excited that I made it all the way through this month! I wasn't sure about taking on the challenge again this year, but here it is, the last day of March, and I made it! I wrote every day! 

Since it is a day in which I feel like celebrating, I thought I would take a minute to celebrate a few things here: (I missed the Celebration link-up on Saturday and I am definitely feeling it)

1. My students begged me to read Rump today. They are loving this read aloud and the time I spend reading is this excellent, quiet time in which we all enjoy reading and books. 

2. Two more days until Spring Break! 

3. My students are really understanding the fractions unit on which we are working. It is great to see their mathematical thinking. 

4. They are loving the Genius Hour time that we have in class. More than half of my class is learning to code and doing a great job at it. It is a great time of learning. 

Slice of Life: Author Visit with Jennifer Holland 3/29

I am participating again this year in the Slice of Life challenge in which we write a slice every day in March. If you are interested in joining in, visit the Two Writing Teachers blog for more information.

This week, I was lucky enough to have another author visit at my school. Jennifer Holland came to speak to my students about her new book Unlikely Heroes as well as her other books and her magazine articles. Ms. Holland is a staff writer for National Geographic magazine and she travels the world learning about animals.  

I was so excited to have her visit our school and share all about her work.  The students were enthralled with the stories about the animal friendships and the animal heroes that she wrote about. When we had a chance for questions, the students all clamored for her attention and were super excited for her to answer their questions. 

I loved having Jennifer Holland visit our school. I am still so incredibly moved that I am able to have such great authors visit our school and give my students these experiences with great writers. 

Find out more about Jennifer Holland on her website here.

Slice of Life: Clean-up 3/28

I am participating again this year in the Slice of Life challenge in which we write a slice every day in March. If you are interested in joining in, visit the Two Writing Teachers blog for more information.

Today at school, we had a clean sweep. Our principal arranged to have volunteers come in and help us clean out our school. There were piles and piles of things stored in coat rooms and closets. As many of you know, we teachers are packrats. It is hard to get rid of things that might be useful someday. However, the reality is that most of us forget about what we have stored and then the next teacher inherits that old junk. 

I was so happy to be able to go in today and organize things. There was a metal cabinet in my coat room that was full of "science" supplies going back at least 20 years. It was so nice to be able to have volunteers work in my classroom and clear out that cabinet. I was able to quickly sort through the junk that was in there and then throw away tons of stuff. A quick wipe down later and now I have a bunch more storage space and will be able to organize better. 

The best thing about today was that I learned about two great organizations in my community that I hadn't heard of before. The volunteer effort was organized by Blackboard Volunteer Corps. This group is a service group that is organizing volunteers to come into schools and help out. Our school was their second project. It was really amazing to see so many people from the community turn out to give us their time. The other group is an organization called NEWaukee. They are a group that is working to try to keep young talent in Milwaukee by helping young professionals with many things. One branch of their organization is a service branch. They like to set up projects with different organizations each month so that their members can try out different volunteer efforts and possibly find a group they want to help on a more regular basis. 

I was pleasantly surprised by how many people were at school today and volunteering their Saturday mornings to give us a hand. They were all so happy to be helping out and they were willing to do anything I needed them to do. My classroom is cleaner than it was and I got to learn about some great groups in my community.  

Slice of Life: Perplexed

I am participating again this year in the Slice of Life challenge in which we write a slice every day in March. If you are interested in joining in, visit the Two Writing Teachers blog for more information.

Why is it so hard for some people to be nice? There is one particular person in my life that always seems to find the most unpleasant and confrontational way to deal with everything that rubs her the wrong way. I don't get it. I just don't understand why this person feels that she will be able to get things from people by having a rude and uncompromising tone with everything she does. I wonder if it gets her things with other people. How can it be a good life if everything you react to has points and sharp edges. The funny thing is that it is always small stuff that this person reacts to. Who cares if something cheap got lost? Is your family so saintly that they never do wrong? I think not. It is interesting that this same person who has this confrontational and rude way of interacting with people will then turn around and make excuses for everything. I wonder what her life would be like if she just took an honest look at herself and her family and realized that sometimes their s*** stinks too. Sometimes the best thing to do is to just follow the rules and play fair. Why is that so hard for some people?

Okay, rant over. Moral of the story: Choose to be kind to others and others will be kind to you.

Slice of Life: Thoughts on Tragedy 3/26

I am participating again this year in the Slice of Life challenge in which we write a slice every day in March. If you are interested in joining in, visit the Two Writing Teachers blog for more information.

I am speechless and heartbroken thinking about the victims of the latest airplane crash in the French Alps. It breaks my heart to think about all of those people who died in the latest tragedy. Whenever something like this happens, it really makes me think about the way that life can take a turn for the worst at any moment. It was bad enough knowing that it was a horrible accident. 

But now, they think that the co-pilot crashed the plane on purpose. Say what? I am without words for this. How could someone be so messed up that this is the decision they made? The pilot was trying to break back into the cockpit for goodness sakes. What must have been going through this person's head? The only thing I can think about is how this person must not have been right in the head. I wonder if he thought he was being told to do this horrible thing. 

We will probably never know what was going through this man's head during those moments. I just think that this makes the whole thing so much more tragic. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/27/world/europe/germanwings-crash.html

Slice of Life: Clutter 3/25

I am participating again this year in the Slice of Life challenge in which we write a slice every day in March. If you are interested in joining in, visit the Two Writing Teachers blog for more information.

The state of my desk at work is approaching disaster level. I have so much clutter and so many papers and so many books and so little time. I find myself inspired by the insanity.

Buried
under mountains of copies,
the teacher editions
collide
with papers
awaiting grades,
awaiting files,
awaiting signatures.
Books are piled
haphazardly.
There is no end.
The papers and mess keep
piling up until
my sanity
starts to unravel.
I must organize,
I must clean,
I must tidy up.
But when?

Slice of Life: Book Club 3/24

I am participating again this year in the Slice of Life challenge in which we write a slice every day in March. If you are interested in joining in, visit the Two Writing Teachers blog for more information.

Tomorrow after school I am hosting the first meeting of my staff book club at school. I am so excited to have this meeting. It is something I have been thinking about for years. I finally decided to put it out there and I am so happy about the response. I feel like the book culture at my school could use some help. It is great that other teachers love the idea of a book club. I am so happy that I decided to put it out there. 

The book club decided to read All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. I loved this book and am really looking forward to discussing it with others. I will be stopping by a neighborhood bakery in the morning to pick up some french pastries to share with my colleagues. I know I will love my time at book club and I hope that the other teachers do too.